I am not very sure abt this as i only have theoretical knowledge. There is a file /etc/nsswitch.conf in which you can specify the order in which the name resolution will take place (that is DNS, NIS or LOCAL ), I think if u put local as the first order it will solve ur problem.

Other linux gurus, please let me know if i am right on this one...

Nick

>>> email@removed 11/16/04 03:50PM >>>

Is there a way I can tell my RHES running Sendmail to look at my /etc/hosts file before looking at my dns for resolution?
I'm in a dmz and it's a bad Oracle setup. I need my RHES to look locally to get emails delivered. TIA!

Hi,
do u have a DNS set up for name resolution or NIS or both? Also what i think happens is that: files dns nis
if u have specified the line as
"hosts: files dns nis" <<<< check if this syntax is correct
then it will first check the etc/hosts file if it is not found there then it will search the DNS database and finally the NIS.Please also check that the host u are trying to lookup is correctly defined in the /etc/hosts file too.

As an option may be u can trmporarily comment out the line in the dns files that resolves the host u are looking for and check if that works....

Hi Patrick,
Please see if the following helps:
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When sendmail installs on UnixWare 7, if a network interface is detected, sendmail is configured to use DNS. The AUTO=YES flag is set in the /etc/service.switch file which tells sendmail to use /etc/resolv.conf (nameservice client) information to find the MX records for qualified mail addresses (that is, user@domain).

If you want to configure sendmail to skip hostname lookups on mail addresses and simply forward non-local mail to another host, take these steps:
Before starting take a copy of the /etc/sendmail.cf to /etc/sendmail.cf.orig
1. Edit the /etc/service.switch file and change AUTO=YES to AUTO=NO:

# AUTO=YES to # AUTO=NO NOTE: It is important to respect the format above. The line begins with a # and the # should be preserved when editing the line.
and add the following line to the bottom of the file:

hosts files
Also check /etc/hosts to ensure that there is a localhost entry and the your server AND the server you may wish to forward email to is defined in the format: